United's Under-18s returned after their mid-season break to earn a comfortable 2-0 win over Stoke on Saturday.

It was a good start to the second half of the season having ended the first half of the 2006/07 campaign with a run of five league games without a win.

The Reds won it with two goals in the first half from strikers Chris Fagan and Febian Brandy.

Fagan got Paul McGuinness' youngsters off to a great start in the eighth minute, before Brandy added a second on 20 minutes.

The U18s' next league match isn't for two weeks, when the Reds travel to Blackburn, after the game against Liverpool - originally scheduled for 13 January - was postponed due to the Anfield Reds' FA Youth Cup commitments.

United are still waiting to discover who they will face in the fourth round of the competition. The Reds will face face either Stockport or Southampton, who are set to resolve their postponed third round tie on Wednesday 10 January.

Ties for the Youth Cup fourth round must be completed by 20 January.

United: Amos; Eckersley, Chester, Cathcart (McCormack, 46), Cleverley; Drinkwater, Derbyshire, Hewson, Galbraith; Fagan, Brandy (Bryan, 68).